Bengaluru traffic cops take to social media big time

Will post real-time alerts on road conditions.
Bengaluru traffic cops take to social media big time

BENGALURU: If you want to experience a smooth ride by avoiding traffic jams, pothole-ridden roads or incomplete civic work obstructions on your route to and fro from work during peak hours, you would do well to check Bangalore Traffic Police’s (BTP’s) tweets or Facebook page before setting out. Real-time alerts posted by the traffic police will inform you the routes that you need to avoid to reach your destination without any hiccups.

BTP has started posting real-time traffic alerts on their Twitter handle and Facebook page to inform the public about hassles they could avoid while travelling, especially during monsoon.In Bengaluru, being a technological hub, social media is widely used by citizens to access information. Every traffic officer at  station level, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) have their own Twitter handles through which they give out gave regular traffic updates to the public and even respond to their woes.

As of now, the DCP Traffic East’s Twitter account alone has 1,78,579 followers, while the main BTP — @blrcitytraffic — handle has a whopping 5,39,672 followers.“If a citizen complains of any traffic issue on social media, we will try to solve it at the earliest and inform them about the action taken ... in certain cases involving authorities such as BBMP, we inform them directly about the public complaints,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic East division, Anupam Agarwal.

BTP’s social media presence is not restricted to Twitter alone. They are present on Facebook and Facebook Messenger as well.On Facebook (look for ‘Bengaluru Traffic Police’), BTP replies to negative comments of public and informs them about action taken, whereas Facebook Messenger is used to attend to individual complaints.  

The BTP also has its own application — Public Eye — which allows people to post pictures and videos of any traffic violation. Public Eye web portal can be used for lodging any complaint.  BTP’s immediate focus is to improve the response mechanism so the information flow from source areas can be increased, he said.

“Technical awareness is high among Bengalureans, who visit social media sites often and therefore, we decided to utilise social media services to reach out to the masses in just a few seconds,” said Agarwal.

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The New Indian Express
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